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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Willard Romney, Class Warrior

Willard Romney, Class Warrior

by Anne Laurie|  December 28, 20115:03 am| 35 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012, Excellent Links, Republican Venality, Romney of the Uncanny Valley

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Your morning dose of righteous indignation, via Mr. Charles P. Pierce at Esquire:

… Comes now this pure piece of manufactured product, this vacant replicant of American plutocracy, to lecture a country in the middle of a fragile recovery from an economic disaster brought on by the other soulless replicants on the topics of our vanishing work ethic, and the great moral cleansing power of onrushing poverty. And, because he cares less about the country he’s planning to lead than he does about the next nickel he can squeeze out of it, he’s doing so with rhetoric that owes more to George Wallace than it does to George Romney, who was a decent Republican in the days before greasy-beaked vultures like his spalpeen hijacked the party. (Which is pretty much what E.J. Dionne was saying recently.) Willard is working the old poor-people-are-robbing-you-blind melodeon again while his real targets are anyone who receives any kind of federal government assistance of any kind whatsoever. And don’t fall for the old “states do it better” dodge. Willard knows full good and well that the states can’t carry this kind of load, either, and that the costs will just get passed down to lower and lower levels of government until nobody can pay for anything, and the programs that he’d like to see eliminated because it will help him get elected simply disappear…
__
He is really the only true class warrior in the race. He’s counting on prejudice and ignorance because he is running in the Republican primaries and that’s the coin of the realm. But he’s also counting on the desperate dreams of desperate people who want to believe that there is a big bag of money out there that’s going to the Wrong People, and that, if someone would only re-direct it, their lives would be better. Well, there is a big bag of money out there, and it is indeed going to the Wrong People, and those would be the people in whose company Willard Romney has spent his entire, cosseted, entitled existence. He has embarked on a divisive campaign of misdirection, hoping against hope that nobody notices that he mortgaged himself to his ambition on an adjustable rate, and that he’s underwater on his soul.

Keep reminding your low-information-voter relations and acquaintances:

When you vote for a modern Republican, you are voting for a bad person.

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Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    NobodySpecial

    December 28, 2011 at 5:35 am

    What’s more depressing is that most of your Reps, D or R, are just as closeted in wealth.

    I think what really killed Liberalism in the ’60s and beyond was that all the people who REALLY suffered in the Depression died out thanks to those shortened lifespans, and almost everyone who was left thinks suffering is virtuous.

  2. 2.

    Raven

    December 28, 2011 at 5:46 am

    No Prisoners!

  3. 3.

    jeffreyw

    December 28, 2011 at 5:53 am

    @NobodySpecial:
    I am a most virtuous man, I suffer so seeing you in pain.

  4. 4.

    JoeShabadoo

    December 28, 2011 at 6:14 am

    @NobodySpecial:
    I hear people actually talk about a Jeb Bush upset this year or him running in 2016.

    We live in an aristocracy.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 28, 2011 at 6:35 am

    I’ve missed Charlie Pierce. He should never again be permitted to take days off, Christmas or no Christmas.

  6. 6.

    Triassic Sands

    December 28, 2011 at 7:56 am

    No one my age, who’s followed politics as closely as I have during my lifetime, should be capable of being surprised by the level of dishonesty in a modern American political campaign.

    However, ignoring all the lies, half-truths, and disingenuousness being spewed by the likes of Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich, Perry, and the “late” Herman Cain, I’m truly amazed by the depth and breadth of dishonesty that Romney has chosen to inject into our national discourse.

    The great challenge faced by the Left in the upcoming campaign, assuming Romney lies his way to the nomination, could be to get people to see what Romney is doing without our running afoul of Godwin’s Law and the discrediting effect it’s existence could have on recognizing exactly where Romney got his playbook. I think it’s fair to predict that no matter how egregious the lie, the MSM will condemn anyone who connects Romney with Hitler via “Die Große Lüge.”

  7. 7.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 28, 2011 at 8:04 am

    @Triassic Sands: I would advise going with the “Republicans think that you are stupid” angle.

  8. 8.

    WereBear (itouch)

    December 28, 2011 at 8:19 am

    There’s no Grampy Walnuts treating you to barbeque. There’s no backslapping W giving you derogatory nicknames. There’s only an animatronic billionaire for whom familiarity bleeds contempt.

    Sure, he’s going to get a certain amount of teeth gritting votes anyway. But I’m guessing less than before.

  9. 9.

    sherparick

    December 28, 2011 at 8:31 am

    I know Romney is suppose to be the “inoffensive” candidate, but really, he makes me want to vomit more than any of the others.

  10. 10.

    agrippa

    December 28, 2011 at 8:32 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Well, the Republicans do think that you are stupid. And, “you” prove it when “you” elect them to office.

  11. 11.

    Triassic Sands

    December 28, 2011 at 8:43 am

    @sherparick:

    I think your instincts are correct.

  12. 12.

    Cermet

    December 28, 2011 at 9:10 am

    @Triassic Sands: That is a lot of win … if I just could figure out the German.

  13. 13.

    handsmile

    December 28, 2011 at 9:26 am

    I thought this excerpt from Pierce’s article captured more viscerally the fundamental fraudulence of the Romney campaign:

    And, yeah, it turns out he’s pretty much a smug, arrogant, and, yes, entitled rich kid who divides the world mentally into two kinds of people — himself and The Help…. Willard Romney has never known a day of peril in his life. He grew up with a silver spoon lodged so deeply in his gums that he had his baby teeth until he was 25. He did his Mormon mission in Provence, for the love of god. He moved onto a lucrative career in predatory capital. If, as was said, George W. Bush was born on third base and thought he hit a triple, then Willard Romney was born in the dugout with four runs in, nobody out, and the bases loaded.

    As I’ve written before, I remain unpersuaded that Mittens or indeed any of those now riding in the Klown Kar Kavalcade will be the ultimate GOP presidential nominee for 2012. But I’m certain that it won’t be Jeb Bush: not now, not in 2016. That malefic political dynasty is barren for at least a generation.

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    December 28, 2011 at 9:56 am

    Keep reminding your low-information-voter relations and acquaintances: When you vote for a modern Republican, you are voting for a bad person.

    This is insipid. If you think this would change anyone’s mind, you really have to wonder who the supposedly “low information voters” really are.

    Many posters have noted how their GOP leaning friends and relatives dig in their heels when challenged. And your strongest play is to suggest that they are stupid and making immoral decisions with their votes?

    You clearly want to lose every political battle.

    And while I like Charles Pierce, he is writing for political wonks. Nobody remembers George Romney. To many people, the only historical Republicans are Lincoln and Reagan, who lived next door to each other.

    I probably dislike Mitt more than Pierce does, but I don’t see his stuff working for anyone but true believers.

  15. 15.

    Cacti

    December 28, 2011 at 10:00 am

    @handsmile:

    Willard Romney has never known a day of peril in his life

    Romney is an older version of the Winklevoss brothers from the movie The Social Network.

    His lack of political success is probably the first time in his life that things didn’t work out for him exactly the way they were supposed to, and boy does it chap his ass.

  16. 16.

    catclub

    December 28, 2011 at 10:03 am

    @JoeShabadoo: The key difference between George W Bush and Sarah Palin is that Bush was born into the aristocracy.

  17. 17.

    Cacti

    December 28, 2011 at 10:09 am

    @Brachiator:

    I probably dislike Mitt more than Pierce does, but I don’t see his stuff working for anyone but true believers

    Agree that few undecideds will be reading Charlie Pierce, but he identifies Romney’s weaknesses well.

    Romney has been running for 5 years now, and can’t crack the 25 percent barrier because he makes a bad impression. Voters find him insincere, and he contributes to that by interacting with regular people as though they were a quaint museum exhibit.

    “Mitt doesn’t understand you/is out of touch” is a message that will resonate.

  18. 18.

    Nancy Irving

    December 28, 2011 at 10:20 am

    “he’s underwater on his soul” –

    Brilliant!

  19. 19.

    Citizen_X

    December 28, 2011 at 10:31 am

    @Brachiator:

    Many posters have noted how their GOP leaning friends and relatives dig in their heels when challenged. And your strongest play is to suggest that they are stupid and making immoral decisions with their votes?

    I agree with your points, but what do you suggest? It’s not only anecdotal; there is clinical support for people digging in their heels when shown contradictory evidence. How do you get beyond that wall of resistance?

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    December 28, 2011 at 10:52 am

    @Citizen_X:

    I agree with your points, but what do you suggest? It’s not only anecdotal; there is clinical support for people digging in their heels when shown contradictory evidence. How do you get beyond that wall of resistance?

    Don’t know. People have to see, or deeply feel, that their lives are getting better. This happened with Bill Clinton, who was able to shrug off GOP attacks and keep the confidence of voters. Obama has had a tougher battle, in part because the GOP learned from their mistakes and now are relentlessly nasty.

    But it is also more than people handling contradictory evidence. A co worker recently displayed an almost stereotypical Orange County California fear. She mentioned how she and her parents were “normal white people,” and that the Democrats wanted to take all that they have rightfully earned and give it to people who don’t deserve it. They see themselves as besieged by Visigoths threatening to overrun their Roman Republic.

    I don’t know how you can overcome this combination of fear and sense of false entitlement.

  21. 21.

    ...now I try to be amused

    December 28, 2011 at 10:57 am

    @Citizen_X:

    I agree with your points, but what do you suggest? It’s not only anecdotal; there is clinical support for people digging in their heels when shown contradictory evidence. How do you get beyond that wall of resistance?

    You beat me to it. I wish I knew the answer to your question too. Many Republicans (my family included) aren’t evil and they aren’t moneygrubbers. How do you convince people who believe they’re doing the right thing that they are really supporting evil? That’s a hard thing to admit to oneself.

    Maybe to answer is to just state your case and accept that they will reject it initially, and maybe reject you too. If it plants the initial seed of doubt, or reinforces messages they’ve received from other sources, then it might succeed eventually.

    Some beliefs can’t be shattered; they can only be eroded. I think that’s what the Right did to liberalism over the last four decades.

    [Crossposted with Brachiator.]

  22. 22.

    Brachiator

    December 28, 2011 at 11:02 am

    @Cacti:

    “Mitt doesn’t understand you/is out of touch” is a message that will resonate.

    I agree with you. But a lot of the GOP base didn’t care for John MCain. And so the strategy was to try to sell the voters on his Senate experience and War Hero(tm) status, and to push hard the sparkly Sarah Palin.

    The similar strategy might be to pair Mitt with a charismatic VP choice, and to try to sell his supposed business acumen.

  23. 23.

    gaz

    December 28, 2011 at 11:06 am

    what, no Veritas?

    LOL

  24. 24.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 28, 2011 at 11:08 am

    But he’s also counting on the desperate dreams of desperate people who want to believe that there is a big bag of money out there that’s going to the Wrong People, and that, if someone would only re-direct it, their lives would be better

    Yeah, about these “desperate people,” they’re called Republicans. Resentment about how someone else is getting a free ride from the government is probably 88% of why anyone votes Republican, to wit, to punish the bogeyman who took your hard-earned money. And the other 12% has to do with being disturbed about teh buttsecks and teh baybeez.

  25. 25.

    Cris (without an H)

    December 28, 2011 at 11:12 am

    Word of the day: “spalpeen.”

  26. 26.

    Brandon

    December 28, 2011 at 11:38 am

    I have long been an advocate of ignoring the GOP clown car fail parade and focussing on Romney because he has been getting a free pass while all the attention has gone to the short comings of the morans that everyone knows will never win. However, I am wondering now if my instincts betray my fundamental lack of insight into the conservative and Village psyche. Because we know that they will always be for whatever Democrats are against or vice-versa, perhaps we should all just embrace Romney and say nice things about him. That will surely defeat him faster than hundreds of clever posts exposing his evil from Charles Pierce.

  27. 27.

    Bulworth

    December 28, 2011 at 11:49 am

    Pierce also had this to say about South Carolina’s latest attempt at voter disenfranchisement:

    as regards the fairness of its election process, South Carolina has no 10th amendment rights that the rest of us are bound to respect.

    Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/south-carolina-voting-rights-6626281#ixzz1hqfy5eMs

  28. 28.

    carpeduum

    December 28, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    Nice rant. I give it a 4/5.

  29. 29.

    MCA

    December 28, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Agree wholeheartedly. Looks like you took the lessons of Nixonland to heart.

    Just listen to any Republican down the street talk about politics. It is always and ever about resentment and little more. Government’s too big = someone else is getting something from my tax dollars, and why am I not rich? It’s why the GOP is so concerned with stanching any attempt at populist talk from a Democrat as “class warfare” and terrified by OWS – they’ve had a hegemony on running the class warfare, which they’ve fashioned into a civil war between various parts of the 99% while the richest watch from the sidelines, for 40 years. As soon as someone can figure out how to turn that resentment outward from the lower, middle and upper middle classes to the highest, the Republican Party is toast.

  30. 30.

    CarolDuhart2

    December 28, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    @Brachiator: But at least John McCain could talk about his war experience and say that he had some suffering in his life. He could be warm and funny at times too as well as Cranky Grandpa. Romney? What experiences has he had that people could relate to at all? He’s not funny, he’s not charming, and he doesn’t have the noblesse oblige personality that says, “I’m well off, but I understand and acknowledge that others aren’t so well off, and I want to help”.

    No campaign tactic can deal with such a deficit.

  31. 31.

    Ella in New Mexico

    December 28, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    I don’t care a whit if Charles Pierce is a writer for “True Believers”–the fact that every single one of his blog posts qualifies for “The Moore Award” is what satisfies my sanity.

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    December 28, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    @CarolDuhart2: The GOP was selling McCain’s war experience to try to prove that he had foreign policy chops. They had to downplay the suffering since they were officially pro torture.

    I agree with you about Romney’s deficits. This is why I think the GOP will look hard for a charismatic VP choice.

    But here is the irony, the totally delicious irony. The Republicans have been insistent that Real Americans ™ cannot relate to Obama, that he is elitist and aloof. That he just does not understand the common man. That he is not even a real Christian.

    And so, they turn to Romney?

    Hilarious.

  33. 33.

    Triassic Sands

    December 28, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    @Cermet:

    Die Große Lüge = the big lie

    Note: Babelfish translates it as “the large lie,” which misses the feeling of the normal historical translation. Google translate gets it right. That’s the difference between simple literal translation and idiomatic, culturally sensitive translation.

  34. 34.

    Triassic Sands

    December 28, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    When you vote for a modern Republican, you are voting for a bad person.

    And when you vote for a bad person…chances are that makes you a bad person.

  35. 35.

    maidhc

    December 28, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Does Pierce know what “spalpeen” means? He seems to think it means something like “whelp”. Actually it means a migrant farm worker, or by extension a rascal.

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